This, however, would seldom be suffered among us, though the Greeks often commend it as a beauty. But why do I speak of a collision of vowels? for, omitting this, we have frequently _contracted_ our words for the sake of brevity; as in _multi' modis, vas' argenteis, palm' et crinibus, tecti' fractis_, &c. We have sometimes also contracted our proper _names_, to give them a smoother sound: for as we have changed _Duellum_ into _Bellum_, and _duis_ into _bis_, so _Duellius_, who defeated the Carthagenians at sea, was called _Bellius_, though all his ancestors were named _Duellii_. We likewise abbreviate our words, not only for convenience, but to please and gratify the ear. For how otherwise came _axilla_ to be changed into _ala_, but by the omission of an unweildy consonant, which the elegant pronunciation of our language has likewise banished from the words _maxillae, taxillae, vexillum_, and _paxillum_? Upon the same principle, two or more words have been contracted into one, as _sodes_ for _si audes_, _sis_ for _si vis_, _capsis_ for _cape si vis_, _ain'_ for _aisne_, _nequire_ for _non quire_, _malle_ for _magis velle_, and _nolle_ for _non velle_; and we often say _dein'_ and _exin'_ for _deinde_ and _exinde_. It is equally evident why we never say _cum nobis_, but _nobiscum_; though we do not scruple to say _cum illis_;--_viz._ because, in the former case, the union of the consonants _m_ and _n_ would produce a jarring sound: and we also say _mecum_ and _tecum_, and not _cum me_ and _cum te_, to correspond with _nobiscum_ and _vobiscum_. But some, who would correct antiquity rather too late, object to these contractions: for, instead of _prob_ DEUM _atque hominum fidem_, they say _Deorum_. They are not aware, I suppose, that custom has sanctified the licence. The same Poet, therefore, who, almost without a precedent, has said _patris mei MEUM FACTUM pudet_, instead of _meorum factorum_,--and _textitur exitium examen rapit_ for _exitiorum_, does not choose to say _liberum_, as we generally do in the expressions _cupidos liberum_, and _in liberum loco_, but, as the literary virtuosos above-mentioned would have it, _neque tuum unquam in gremium extollas_ LIBERORUM _ex te genus_, and, _namque Aesculapi_ LIBERORUM. But the author before quoted says in his Chryses, not only _Cives, antiqui amici majorum_ MEUM, which was common enough--, but more harshly still, CONSILIUM, AUGURIUM, _atque_ EXTUM _interpretes_; and in another place, _Postquam_ PRODIGIUM HORRIFERUM PORTENTUM _pavos_.